Speaker(s)

Session Details

Length of Session: 1-hr

Format:

Expertise Level: Not provided

Type of session: General Conference

Summary

Two leaders in the field of accessible document design get together to discuss the current state of PDF accessibility. Drawing on experience and data from surveys, including the ongoing survey bye the Australian government and the first iteration of the PDF and the User Experience, we’ll tackle the present and future of PDF accessibility.

Abstract

Two leaders in the field of accessible document design “face off” in a discussion about the current state of accessibility of PDF documents. On one side is Gian Wild of AccessibilityOz whose position is that PDF documents just “aren’t there” at the moment. Gian supports HTML as a easy and viable file format. She is supported by the Australian Human Rights Commission statement of 2014: “The Commission’s advice, current February 2014, is therefore that PDF cannot be regarded as a sufficiently accessible format to provide a user experience for a person with a disability that is equivalent to that available to a person without a disability, and which is also equivalent to that obtained from using the document marked up in traditional HTML.” On the “Other side” is Karen McCall, an ardent advocate for PDF/UA and a Canadian delegate to the ISO PDF/UA committee. “PDF is not going away and we need to advocate for the tools to ensure easier conversion to a PDF/UA conforming ecosystem.

Keypoints

Benefits of HTML based content

Benefits of PdF based content

Review of current data on the accesibility of PdF content

Disability Areas

Cognitive/Learning, Vision

Topic Areas

Speaker Bio(s)

Karen McCall

Karen McCall, M.Ed. is the owner of Karlen Communications. She has been working in the field of accessible document design for over ten years and has written several books on creating and working with various document formats including Word, PowerPoint and PDF. She is currently working on the fourth edition of her book “Accessible and Usable PDF Documents: Techniques for Document Authors.” Karen is a Canadian delegate to the ISO PDF/UA committee. Her current activities include creating the PdF and the User Experience Survey for people with disabilities using adaptive technology and advocating for a global inclusive quality education standard.

Gian Wild

Gian has worked in the accessibility industry since 1998 and consulted on the development of the first Level AAA accessible web site in Australia (Disability Information Victoria). Gian Wild spent six years on the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Working Group, the W3C Evaluation and Repair Tools Working Group and the W3C Authoring Tools Accessibility Guidelines Working Group. She spent six years contributing to the development of WCAG2.
Gian is often asked to speak at both web and accessibility conferences around the world, including in the United States, Europe, South America and Canada. She spoke at the United Nations on the importance of accessibility at the Eighth session of the Conference of States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.